Cleolinda everywhere

spectralbovine

I'm raising money for 826 Valencia, which provides writing workshops for students from elementary school through high school as well as resources for teachers. They offer one-on-one tutoring for everything from fiction to college application essays. They even publish their work in books, which does wonders for their self-esteem and confidence. They also run the pirate store in the Mission, and I try to support them when I can because I believe in their mission to promote the literary arrrrrrts.

On February 17, 826 Valencia is hosting a Spelling Bee for Cheaters. I am on a fundraising team of LIBRARIANS (Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe), and the more money we raise as a team, the more we can cheat in order to beat such luminaries as Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Chabon and the inimitable Lemony Snicket, not to mention Adam Savage from Mythbusters, John Vanderslice, and Tracy Chapman. Of course, the real reason we're raising money is to benefit the children. Every little bit, from $1 to $100, helps keep these programs free for students. It's a great organization and a fun fundraiser that I think would be relevant to your readership! I'm trying to raise $5,000, and I think I can pull it off with everyone's help. Here's my donation page. Thanks!

Lamictal, day... what day are we on now? Eleven? Nothing new to report. Except that I took Lucky outside this morning and it felt like the first real approach of fall--a few degrees cooler, a few dead leaves swirled on the ground.

I spent most of yesterday away from my desk, which means that I have two or three days of linkspam piled up.

( The lady appeared after a man-serpent and before a couple of child clog-dancers )

entropy_and_me

particle_person

talesfromthefen

skyblade

Lamictal, Day 7: It's weird--I don't feel like I'm "on drugs" at all, which is a sign that it's a good fit, but at the same time, I could definitely feel an effect earlier in the week that's fading now. So I have another week on 25 mg before we go up to 50 mg, at which point I'll probably feel it again. In the meantime, though, I keep forgetting that we didn't just add a medication--we also cut my Wellbutrin in half, which I finally realized explains why I can't concentrate at all. I mean, I can, but for someone who's used to marathon reading sessions, it's disconcerting to have difficulty staying on task with a simple Wikipedia article. I have more success if I curl up with a book, but reading news or articles on the computer is a lot harder at the moment. And all of this is because I was put on Wellbutrin because it's an antidepressant, yes, and because it affects a brain chemical (I forget which one) that Zoloft doesn't, but mostly to treat attention problems, since Adderall wasn't working (or rather, it was a blunter instrument than I needed).

(Which deserves a sidenote unto itself: I was the last person, literally the last person in the world, ever, that you would have suspected of being ADD, if your idea of ADD was "hyperactive." I was hypoactive. I spent my entire childhood in a book. It turns out, however, that a lot of girls manifest attention disorders as being very dreamy--not being hyper, per se. I rarely paid attention in class; I was usually writing, in a notebook half-hidden in my lap, or under the cover of taking "notes," but there were a lot of classes where I was listening to the lecture with one ear and composing bad poetry with the other. If that makes any sense, which it... kind of doesn't. Anyway. A class like government/econ [which was taught by two football coaches anyway], I could swing it. A class like math, well... I failed a semester exam one time, let's just put it that way.)

Suddenly my habit of parenthetical digressions makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

Linky-link:

Armitage says he was source in CIA leak.

Ellen DeGeneres Tapped to Host Oscars.

A sneak peek of "Simpsons" online Friday.

Jackie Chan wants to be respected like De Niro.

Panda accidentally crushes cub in China.

stardustshine: "I'd like to ask you to post a link to petfinder so that we can Help Petie. I came across his story the other day at yorkierescueme.com and it just broke my heart. The rescue is trying to raise money by the end of October to give him surgery to fix a bone deformity. Of course there is not an animal rescue in the country that does not need need donations of time and money, so even if your readers can't donate at this time, I hope everyone will keep in mind that there are hundreds of hard cases like Petie that need support any time you can give it."

Poor Dooce: "The only way I can possibly begin to describe this man and his office is to compare it to a graphic science fiction/horror comic book, it was that unsettling. He began by telling me that the incision that my doctor had made on my arm could have made the problem much worse, because by cutting into the cancer like she did she could have deposited diseased cells into the deeper layers of skin. When I reminded him that he was the one who had told her to just go ahead and cut it out herself, he said, 'Really? That was pretty stupid of me, wasn’t it?' EXCUSE ME FOR A MOMENT WHILE I PICK OUT AN EXPENSIVE FABRIC FOR MY CASKET."

Wandering around Flickr last night, I ended up at Madame Talbot's (she has an account.) Fantastic. I want the vampire poster so bad. Not only that, but Madame Talbot's links page is outstanding. On that page alone, I found headless historical dolls (actually, they do come with heads; the heads just aren't... attached); "Chateau Bizarre, Small Business at Its Strangest," or, "Weird Shit You Might Enjoy Buying" (and how!); Art of Adornment; Prodigies: Drawings of Anomalous Humans; old and rare books from A Grave Affair; and the cutest Edward Gorey necklace ever. Not to mention this fantastic blog. Which is why I haven't elaborated much on the primary linkspam, because I'm off reading deathndementia.com (see title of entry).

I think I need to come to grips with the fact that autumn really is my favorite season of the year. I thought it was late spring, with the cool weather and the pretty, pretty flowers, but I was so very, very wrong.